Lucknow: Former Union minister and Samajwadi Party founding member Beni Prasad Verma died here on Friday. He was 79.
The Rajya Sabha member was not keeping well for the past few days and admitted to a private hospital in Lucknow, where he died around 7 pm, his son Rakesh Verma told PTI.
Verma was the telecom minister between 1996-1998 in then prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s cabinet and was the steel minister in the Congress-led UPA-II government.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav reached the hospital and condoled his death. Verma is survived by three sons and two daughters.
The former Union minister’s association with SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav spans over four decades.